Connections
by watchingstar
Summary: Ch 3 up! Jarod connects with a family and finds out things are not what they seemed...R&R please! Takes place shortly after IOTH.
1. Ch 1 Early Beginnings

Connections By Justine This story takes place a few days after IOTH. Some things may be a little out cos I've only read the write up on it so I'm sorry if that's the case. I try to keep the Pretender characters as accurate as possible so please tell me if there's anything wrong.  
  
Ch 1 Early Beginnings  
  
Yawning, Miss Parker slowly made her way to her front door. She was utterly exhausted after the previous few days' dramas. It seemed the more she dug the more questions arose. Who am I? As she slipped into bed, touching the picture of Thomas, she noticed a book on her dresser. Picking it up, Miss Parker gasped in shock. There, lying in her hands was her mother's diary. The phone rang- perfect timing as usual. "What?" Jarod heard her mutter, a little softer then usual. "I see you have found my present." "Mmm. Funny that you had MY mothers diary, Jarod." "You'll be surprised what you can get when you look around. Treasure it, Miss Parker, it may be the key to your, maybe our survival." "So I guess we've gone back to this game again." "As you said, I run, you chase." On that note he hung up. Miss Parker turned the diary around and began feeling the edges and backing. Finding the bump, she tore open the binding and a small golden key fell into her lap. Placing the key down, next to her favourite photo, she turned over the first page. As she began to read, fond memories of happy times with her mother made her smile.  
  
Meanwhile, Jarod, driving a RV pulls up outside a small farm/chalet place on the outskirts of a small country town. Behind him, four small wooden 2- storey chalets stand in a row looking homey and inviting. On his right were two barns, one which he would later find out, held 8 horse stalls and the other was fairly empty, holding no more then a couple of hay bales. Directly in front of him, was an old, country styled house. Above the front door, was a sign "Manager's Residence, Enquire Within." Jarod knocked on the door and a pump middle-aged African American woman answered holding a little boy and several soft toys. "Hello. Can I help you?" The little boy on her hip squirmed causing her to drop most of the toys. Looking rather flustered she cried, "Oh Benjamin! Sit down and stop wiggling!" Another woman around her mid twenties appeared, taking Ben from her. "Ben! Have you been bothering your grandmother again? . Come on." A tall robust man and a slightly shorter older man walked into the room and added to the rest of the commotion. Jarod was a little startled by all the activity. "Eh, should I come back at another time?" he asked the first woman. "Oh no, it's fine. Sorry about all the commotion. It's my daughter's graduation and the whole family has come for the weekend. It's been a nightmare! So what can I do for you?" "I'd like a place to stay for a couple of days." "No problem love. I'll sign you in straight away. Oh and I'm Alice Swanson." "I'm Jarod.Carter." "Okay Mr Carter." Alice replied when she'd finished quickly scribbling in the book. "You'll be in cabin.2." Handing over the keys she added. "Have a nice stay." As he turned around to leave, she cried out. "Oh Mr Carter, have you any plans for the evening?" Turning around, Jarod replied. "Why no, Nothing in particular." "Well, my Ellie's graduation is apart of a concert put on by the school. The graduates have planned quite a show. Did you want to join us?" "Why yes, I'd love to." He said with a smile.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the graduates of 2002!" Thunderous applause followed the excited, teary adolescents out of the building and into the courtyard. Outside over cups of coffee, Jarod chats with Alice and her family. "You have a very talented daughter, Mrs Swanson." "Oh love, call me Alice. Oh Bill there she is!" She said, pulling at her husband's jacket. A pretty blonde waves and rushes over and hugs Alice. "Mom!" "Oh baby, you're all grown up!" "Mom!" Ellie cries and looks around. "Of course dear, your friends.. Sweetie, this is Jarod Carter. He's staying at the farm for a couple of days." "Hi Mr Carter." She said bubbly, shaking his hand. "Call me Jarod."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The next day Jarod was walking to the barn with the latest newspaper under his arm, intending to catch up with world events when he passed Sean, Alice's son, who was coming from the house, carrying a towel and a blow up beach ball. "Hey Jarod! Come join us for a swim in the dam!" Ellie came rushing past him, carrying a towel. "Hey little lady!" Shaun yelled out to her. "What?" "Go help mom carry out something." Ellie turned around and grinned. "All right" she said slapping Shaun on the arm, skipping out of his way when he tried to get her back. "I'll get you!" Jarod returned with Ellie to the house where Alice was gathering up gear to take to the dam. Ellie snatched up a bag and ran out of the house before Alice could give her anything more. "Young lady! Remember who's coming today!" "Yeah whatever." Ellie called in the distance. Jarod gathered up a few remaining items and followed Alice top the dam. "So, who else is coming today?" Jarod asked. "Oh just the usual nearby bunch and Ellie's.well I guess you could call him a social worker, but he's more of a mentor to Ellie. They're pretty close." "It's nice to have someone like that in your life." "Yes, I'm glad Ellie's grown up here." "When did you adopt her?" "Oh she was about 4 when we adopted her. Best thing Bill and I ever done. The boys love her and Sarah loved having a little sister." "You must be very proud." At that point, Jarod was forced to duck as a figure came flying by and fell with a yell into the water. Alice looked at him and sighed. "Ellie!" She shouted. Alice turned to Jarod and shook her head. "I just wished she'd act her age once in a while. She'll never grow up- just like Peter Pan!" "Peter Pan?" Jarod asked with a perplexed look on his face. "You don't know about Peter Pan? I thought all children heard about Peter Pan." "I didn't really have much of a childhood." Alice smiled sympathetically at him. "Don't worry. A few days with Ellie and you'll be right. She'll teach you all there is to know about being a kid." Ellie crawled out of the water and walked over to Alice who handed her a brightly coloured beach towel. Drying her hair, Ellie looked up and waved. "Mom, look who's here!" They both turned around as they watched a man walked up and hugged Ellie. Jarod gasped in shock when he saw the mans face.  
  
A little background on the Swanson family. Alice and Bill Swanson have two sons and a daughter, George (29) (married with a little boy, Ben), Shaun(23) and Sarah (25) (married with twin girls, 8 months old) and an adopted daughter, Ellie (17-18 (How old are graduates in the U.S? I'm from Australia and we graduate when we're 17.) 


	2. Ch 2 Old Faces

Thanks casper for the info. Ellie's age is now fixed at 18.  
  
If any of the characters are out with the TV series please tell me!  
  
  
  
Ch 2 Old Faces  
  
"Sydney! Wonderful to see you again!" Alice remarked, "How was the journey up here?" "Fine. Just fine." He said as he accepted the cup of lemonade from her. "Oh sorry- how rude of me. Sydney this is Jarod. Jarod this is Sydney." "Yes, we've already met." Sydney commented, unsure just what to say. "In fact, Sydney's quite a close friend of mine." Jarod nodded at Sydney, and both relaxed. "Oh." Said Ellie, who'd sat down on the deck chair with a towel around her shoulders. "Are you a psychiatrist as well?" "I have been." Jarod grinned. "Oh so what are you-" Just then Shaun came up, picked up Ellie and chucked her into the dam. Suddenly Jarod's occupation was forgotten as a full-scale water fight broke out.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Later Jarod still hadn't managed to catch Sydney by himself. Sydney knew Jarod was curious about why he was at the Swanson's and his connection to them but there was little he could do about it. He loved coming here. He was almost disappointed when he first saw Jarod. Seeing Jarod always brought back feelings of guilt and remorse, feelings he never felt when he was here. Sydney was always happy seeing Ellie, no feelings of regret with her. She was always happy, okay well not always, but she was always real. Things were always straightforward with Ellie. No secrets, no lies. The Centre didn't know, as far as he knew (as you never know with the Centre), about the Swanson's or his visits and he intended on keeping it that way.  
  
If the Centre ever knew about Ellie-  
  
"Sydney?" Ellie had interrupted his thoughts. Sydney smiled. "Yes Ellie? What do you want?" "Do you want to go for a walk? I want to tell you something." "Of course. Just let me get my coat." Sydney snatched his brown coat from the guest room, looking a lot more casual then he usually looked, in an old jumper and trousers. Ellie cheekily poked her head around the door. "Come on, slow poke!" "I'm not growing younger, Ellie."  
  
As soon as they were out of the driveway, Ellie turned to Sydney. "I haven't told anyone yet, cos they'll think I'm crazy. But I want to be a shrink like you. I want to help people like you have. They all think I'm too emotion. That I couldn't distance myself. That I'll be too empathetic. So they're all thinking I'm going to college tomorrow to become a designer. I hate lying like this." "You need to tell them the truth." "I know and I will but." Sydney just listened to Ellie as she poured out her hopes and her fears about the future. Unbeknownst to both of them, Jarod was watching from the veranda. Leaning against the wooden post, he smiled at the two figures walking up the road. He was glad Sydney was there. It was nice to see him so relaxed. Shaun walked out from the house where he'd been packing for his journey down south. He joined Jarod on the veranda, handing him a cuppa. "Thankyou." He nodded in Ellie and Sydney's direction. "They seem close." "Oh they are. But then Ellie's friend with everyone. She's probably telling him how she wants to be a shrink and how she hasn't told anyone in the family. Next time she shouldn't leave her enrolment form on the kitchen bench for the world to see." "Why didn't she want to tell anyone about it?" Shaun looked at Jarod and grinned. "After a couple of days with Ellie and you haven't figured that out? She's Miss Emotional. She cried when Lassie got injured. She worries about everyone and gets sympathy sickness. Does that sound like a good shrink to you? Oh well, maybe she'll surprise us." He looked out at Ellie and shook his head. He turned to go inside and Jarod followed. "Anyway I better get back to this broken tractor. Dad wanted it fixed before I leave." "I'll give you a hand." Jarod said, placing his mug on the sink in the kitchen. "I know a little about tractor maintenance." "You grow up on a farm?" "No, but I saw The Wizard of Oz. And I read this really interesting book on Tractor parts.."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
After tea, Jarod was finally able to see Sydney with out interruption. He knocked on the guest room after supper. "Sydney?" Sydney opened the door and looked at Jarod. They could Sarah putting the girls to bed in the next room and Bob's laughter downstairs in the lounge where he was playing Monopoly with Ellie and his grandson. Alice walked past into the opposite room and shut the door to have a shower. "Perhaps we should go to my cabin." Jarod commented. "I'll join you in a minute, Jarod. I just have to get something you might like to see."  
  
Sydney walked across the drive way and into Jarod's cabin. He placed down his box on the coffee table in front of the couch he was sitting on. He pulled out a yellow file containing a photo of Ellie as a baby and the normal details, most, which Jarod noted, had been crossed out by a thick black permeant marker. "I don't know where she came from before she was at the Centre but I know why she came." "The Centre, I should have known this would have something to do with it, with this little information. So you saved her from the Centre?" "Well, not quite saved. Here look at this." He picked out a DSA out of his box. "This might explain it." He said as he pressed play. 


	3. Ch 3 Fond Memories

Some more info so my story makes sense: The Swanson's live somewhere in Maine, US. I have never been to America so correct me if the distances/ geographical locations are not correct.

## Ch 3 Fond memories

A younger Ellie appeared on the scene. Jarod cringed as he looked at the screen behind her and the instructions she was given. He was feeling a bad sense of de ja vu.

# "Hello Ellie, My name is Sydney. I'll-"

_"Hello Mister Sydney sir!" Ellie replied shaking his hand._

_Obviously startled by Ellie's frankness, Sydney smiled and continued._

_"Ellie, I want you to build me this building, the one on the screen behind you."_

_"Mister!" she cried in her high girly voice, "I've been there! With Aunty Janice who's not my real Aunty, and Ernest, that's her real boy, yeah and we went up to the very top! And then Ernest wanted to climb up the tall stick thing they stuck on the top and then Aunty Janice took us to a real fancy shop with yummy food and lots of art and there was these statues that Aunty Janice wouldn't let us see cos they had no-"_

_"Ellie!"_

_By this time Ellie had managed to climb up on to the only piece of furniture, a small table the video projector was on and was preceding to show with her hands how Ernest was planning to climb to the very top. She turned around and lost her balance. Sydney stepped over and caught her just as she was about to topple off the table._

_"Ellie," he said kneeling down to her level. "I have to go somewhere for a few minutes. I'll be back soon. Can you build me this building?"_

_"You're leaving?" Ellie said, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks._

_"I'll be back soon, I promise." And with that a frazzled Sydney quickly left the room._

_ _

_The next few minutes show Ellie with her back to the screen building…something. She then walks up and taps on the glass, looking directly at the camera._

_"I'm fin-"_

_Whatever she had built suddenly fall flat on the floor. Ellie rushes over and picks it up then rushes back to the camera._

_"Now I'm fin-nished!"_

_Sydney walks in and set eyes on the…thing…that Ellie has built. He kneels down again to Ellie's level and asks her to explain her version of the Empire State Building to him. _

_She giggles and says, "It's not the _whole _Empire State Building. That would _never _fit in here! So I just made the things that stop you from falling off the building!" _

_She then walks up behind her railing and pretends to look out over New York, pointing out invisible landmarks to whomever she imagined was behind her. Sydney, hand to his mouth, chuckles quietly._

_ _

An older Sydney takes the DSA out of the slot and turns to Jarod, smiling. 

"Ellie had the skills at four that many will never have, especially those at the Centre, including me and even you. She is special in a different way yet, thank God, they failed to realise this. But she's not a Pretender. And she can never return to the Centre."

He looked at Jarod and the Pretender immediately understood.

"It would destroy her soul. She couldn't survive in such a cold, frigid place like the Centre." Jarod observed. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

_ _

Sydney left early the next morning after breakfast, leaving the Swanson's with his best wishes. After lunch Jarod prepared the RV for the journey to the city he'd planned his next pretend. Thanking them for their hospitality, he presented Alice with a nice cheque and a promise to return. Waving goodbye, he drove out of the driveway and on to the road where he was quickly overtaken by Ellie and Shaun, who were driving to the nearest town eight miles away for *_essential* (cough)_ supplies for their journey the following day. He was barely within the outskirts of the town when an old women lost control and crashed into the front of the RV. Fortunately neither had been travelling fast enough for a serious accident and they both managed to climb out of their vehicles. The old women was a little shaky and Jarod walked her over to the nearest diner and brought her a drink of water to calm her nerves then making sure she was fine went out to inspect the damage. Unfortunately the RV was a total write off and the woman's van needed a good panel beater's TLC. He walked slowly back to the diner, thinking, when he ran into Ellie with those *_essentials* _like chocolate, candy and vanilla coke. 

"Hey Jarod!" Ellie smiled then she noticed his face. "What's wrong?"

Shaun came jogging up behind her.

"Elles, There's been a collision and Mrs Cadbury's cars a wreck. Funny, the other vehicle looked really familiar…"

Then her noticed Jarod's expression and stopped.

"Hey you all right?"

"I'm fine. But I really need to be in Boston by tomorrow at the latest. Do you know where I can catch a bus there?"  
Shaun laughed. "From this town? Not for the next few days, if that. You might get lucky at the-no forget about that! Ellie and I are heading south to the Big Apple tomorrow, we can drop you off in Boston on the way if you want a lift."

"Yeah come! It'll be fun. If you can brave Shaun's lame jokes for a few hours." Ellie added. 

"Thankyou but I'll be fine, I'll just check the bus time-" 

"Look Jarod, you're coming with us now whether you like it or not so you better well deal with it. We're leaving at 7.30 tomorrow morning and we'll EXPECT to see you outside the house waiting for us." Ellie demanded, cutting Jarod off. "Come on Shaun, now we have an excuse to buy that extra packet of salt and vinegar chips so you can collect the whole set of Star Wars cards. See you tomorrow morning Jarod."

On that note she turned around and began walking to the car.

"You better be there man. She's not nice to people who break their promises!" Shaun remarked and ran off to join Ellie.

Jarod, bewildered, shrugged and then realised something.

# How am I going to get back to the property?

He thought as their car whizzed by.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Today is sure going to be a beautiful day so get out there and soak up the sunshine. It is going to be a beauuuuuutiful 80 degrees. A little cloudy this afterno-"

"-and now for Beethoven's 5th Symphony-"

"-the bases are loaded. Jones slowly comes up to the bat. Roberts pitchers-AND HE HITS IT WAY OUT INTO THE OUTFIELD-"

"She loves me! Yeah yeah yeah!"

Shaun reaches over and switches the radio off. Ellie goes to turn it back on when he gives her a fierce look. 

"So Jarod," Ellie asks from the back seat, head back, arms stretched out across the to of the seat, breathing in the fresh air coming in from the sun roof. "Have you ever been on a road trip before?"

Jarod grins. 

"Yes I have."

"So what was it like?"

"Oh, it was pretty memorable."

"I had my first road trip when I was 13. My sister and I just packed up and drove to L.A. for a month during the summer vacation. We had such a great time!"

"Yeah, Sarah must have had a _really_ brilliant time." Shaun said from the drivers seat. "Where did she meet Louis anyway?"

"Philly. We drove up the coast on the way back. I couldn't stand him back then."

"That's right! I remember. You were such a tomboy back then. You hated anything mushy and from the sounds of it, Louis fitted in with the role of Romeo VERY well."

Jarod laughed. "Not one for romances are you Ellie?"

Shaun smirked, covering it up with a cough whilst watching Ellie go a deep shade of crimson.

"Oh Ellie's got a nice old crush on someone who she isn't letting on about."

From then on, Ellie knew she was in trouble!

After a few hours they begin to see signs marked Boston so many miles. Soon they were in the heart of Boston passing the famous landmarks and tall buildings.

"Just up here near the diner will be fine." Jarod pointed.

Shaun pulled up and parked in the parking lot. 

"Thanks for the lift." Jarod said shaking Shaun's hand.

"Anytime Jarod." Shaun replied.

He turned to Ellie who was holding a small piece of paper.

"Jarod. Can you give this to Sydney next time you see him? I forgot to give him my new address and phone number*(see below)."

"Sure." Jarod said taking the paper.

"Well…Seeya Jarod." Ellie punches him on the arm and jumps back into the car.

Jarod smiles and waves as the car drives off.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A couple of weeks later in Boston Jarod emerges outside a hospital with a young couple and their young boy.

"Thankyou Jarod for all you've done for us." The mother said and wrapped her arms around him. Behind her he can see three familiar figures getting out of a car. He whispers something in the mother's ear and hands her an envelope then he seems to disappear. The family start walking toward the parking lot ready to go home when a sharp brunette approaches them followed by two men. 

"Have you seen this man?" Miss Parker asks, holding a picture of Jarod.

"Yes, he saved our son but he left a few minutes ago. I'm sorry you missed him." The father said.

The mother looks at Sydney then looks at her hand covering the note from Jarod. 

"Come on Syd, we've missed him." Miss Parker sighs and turns around with Broots at her heels. Sydney quickly takes the envelope and pockets it, nodding a quick thankyou then joins the other two.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It's morning and Jarod is eating at a bar somewhere in NYC. He looks at his red notebook and smiles. The Headlines read:

"Company manager confesses faulty goods sales for high profits."

"Crippled Boy walks!"

His attention is then drawn to the morning news on the TV. The barman goes to change the channel, when Jarod stops him.

"Wait. I want to see this." He says with angst in his voice.

*Ellie is living on campus at NYU with a friend while Shaun lives in an apartment near Central Park.


End file.
